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MLB.TV opens 11th season of live baseball

Subscription to watch live games comes with free At Bat app

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MLB.TV is Baseball Everywhere 0:30

Experience your game like never before. Subscribe now to MLB.TV Premium

By Mark Newman

In Nashville, Leslie Wheeler will watch her son, R.A. Dickey, throw knuckleballs for the Blue Jays instead of the Mets. The one constant for her will be MLB.TV, which has allowed her to watch all of Dickey's starts since she started subscribing to the service six or seven years ago, long before he was a 20-game winner and Cy Young Award recipient.

But you don't need a famous son to reap the benefits of MLB.TV. Signups are under way for the annual MLB.TV Premium ($129.99) and basic MLB.TV ($109.99) packages, marking the 11th year for the most prolific live video subscription service. This launch of "Baseball Everywhere" will let you watch every live out-of-market regular-season game, plus more than 150 live Spring Training games, and it is a celebration of fans' ever-increasing ability to use the service over a wider range of platforms.

Get HD-quality video, thanks to speed detection that delivers high-def on any size monitor. Alternate Audio Options allow you to overlay the home or away teams' radio broadcasts over live video feeds or use the "Park" option to enjoy the ballpark's natural sounds. Pause and rewind or fast-forward live games. Use Clickable Linescores to go directly to any at-bat or half-inning of a game. Watch up to four games simultaneously.

Take advantage of Picture-in-Picture to choose one game and track another or watch in-game highlights simultaneously in a secondary window. Track the location, type and speed of every pitch. View real-time highlights and player stats that automatically load into the media player, instantly launching a Picture-in-Picture window with one click. Customize a list to feature entire fantasy rosters and receive on-deck notifications to watch live look-ins for each player.

Another perk that comes with having MLB.TV Premium: watching tomorrow's stars today. You can save $20 on a yearly subscription to MiLB.TV, which allows you to watch live games involving all Triple-A teams, select games from other classifications, select All-Star and playoff games and on-demand archives.

"I use this to watch Oakland's Triple-A Sacramento River Cats and Minnesota's Triple-A Rochester Red Wings," Twins fan Erin Nagel explained. "As roster moves are made between the Majors and Minors, it's an easy way to keep tabs on players. It's also an easy way to take a look at players that may be ready to make the move up to the Major League level."

Dickey said his mother has relied on MLB.TV to watch him evolve into a Cy Young Award winner.

"It's been fun to watch, because of the progression of technology," he told MLB.com shortly before winning his 20th game last season. "One, because it brings the gift of baseball into so many more lives. That's what's first and foremost -- it's awesome. Secondly, it gives my mom a chance to watch every time I pitch, which probably should be first.

"She used to just follow on the [Gameday] pitch tracker and then she got MLB.TV. The evolution of it has just been fantastic. She started subscribing around 2006-07, and she has been with it ever since."

MLB.TV Premium will continue to support a growing variety of mobile and connected platforms. Additional distribution platforms for MLB.TV live streaming will launch this season, and each will be announced as it becomes available.

If you sign up for MLB.TV Premium, you will receive an exclusive offer for a subscription to MLB.com At Bat 13, the top sports app of all-time. This offer is only available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android smartphones and tablets. At Bat is expected to be available by the start of Spring Training exhibitions, so be on the lookout in coming days.

"In addition to never missing a Sox game, I always have a game on via MLB.TV throughout the day," White Sox fan Melissa Dickson said. "Being a huge MLB fan, the service allows me to never miss a second of action and always remain close to the game even though I'm thousands of miles away.

"It's safe to say I easily get my money's worth and much more each season with MLB.TV, and always look forward to the improvements made to it for fans every year upon its release. Even just the ability to have access to Spring Training games makes life just that much more enjoyable."

Mark Newman is enterprise editor of MLB.com. Read and join other baseball fans on his MLB.com community blog. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.